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What Is Archaeology?

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What Is Archaeology? Archaeology Alive! What is Archaeology? This slideshow developed by archaeologist Dr. Alexander Smith and staff from the Academic Programs Department of the Memorial Art Gallery (MAG) of the University of Rochester Note to Teachers: The information in this script is provided for your background and context; please feel free to tailor the information according to your students’ needs. SLIDE 1 What is archaeology? What do you think of when you hear “archaeologist” or “archaeology?” [Possible answers include references to digging, dinosaurs, fossils, old stuff, Indiana Jones, etc.] Archaeology is a science of history, and archaeologists are scientists who study past cultures and human history through physical remains – through the “stuff” left by humans. Many human beings who lived on this planet didn’t write things down for us – we don’t have any kind of written documents or books from early humans. So how can we know anything about these human beings: how they lived, where they lived, what kind of work they did, what kinds of objects they made and used? We can study the answers to these kinds of questions by using the physical remains and objects that these people left behind. Human-created objects such as tools, weapons, and works of art are known as artifacts, which archaeologists dig up and study along with the remains of ancient buildings and dwellings. They investigate and search for clues – much like detectives – to tell us: how people in the past lived, what kind of tools they had, where they lived, what kind of religious beliefs they had, what their lives were like, where they died, what kind of objects they made, how they were buried, what they ate, and more! This slideshow will give you a chance to learn about how archaeologists actually go about studying the human past through objects. [NEXT SLIDE] 500 University Avenue ph: 585.276.8900 Rochester, NY 14607 web: mag.rochester.edu SLIDE 2 So what do archaeologists actually do? Do they study dinosaurs? [no, that the job of a paleontologist] Archaeologists study the human past! How do they find the artifacts that they study? Do these images offer any clues? 1. archaeological excavations in progress 2. 3: various kinds of tools used by archaeologists in excavations [NEXT SLIDE] SLIDE 3 A large part of what archaeologists do is dig, or excavate. Excavation is hard and very dirty work. You have to like getting dirty to do archaeology! It is also physically very demanding – often it’s like doing really hard yardwork! Archaeologists use many different kinds of tools. What tools do you recognize in these images? 1. This archaeologist uses a shovel to excavate a precise area that has been marked off by tape. Precision is very important in archaeology – everything and every place must be very carefully noted, measured, and marked. 2. Two archaeologists use large pickaxes to dig a trench through dirt layers. © 3. Jonathan is using a broom and dustpan to sweep dirt away and “clean up” an excavated layer at a site in the Caribbean. Notice the yellow buckets behind him: why do archaeologists use buckets? [All dirt from a site during an excavation is removed in buckets, to be examined further.] (More information on this in the next slide) 4. Alex uses a small pickax and variety of brushes at a dig site in Spain. 5. Claudia is using a trowel (the classic archaeology tool) and a dustpan to excavate a sanctuary site in Greece. © [NEXT SLIDE] SLIDE 4 What do you see these archaeologists doing? What tools are they using? [Possible answers: brushing the dirt off objects, washing finds with toothbrushes, sifting, sorting through the dirt looking for small things]) Why worry about the small stuff? Why do archaeologists bother to spend time looking for tiny fragments and broken objects, when they could be concentrating on the large objects and architectural finds? There are a number of reasons: - Sometimes very tiny but whole objects, such as coins, beads, teeth, and bones, can be overlooked during the digging process. - Broken objects can be reassembled during the conservation stage, so archaeologists want to find as many pieces as they can. - Sometimes a very tiny object, or even just a fragment of an object, can have a lot of information to share about the site or the culture. - Once archaeologists dig in a site, no one can excavate it again. It is essentially destroyed, but in a very careful, systematic, scientific way. Archaeologists want to be certain that they find every single object, down to the tiniest fragment. They make very precise records: write notes, measure, draw, photograph, and use GPS systems to record finds and locations. Images information: 1. An archaeologist uses a paintbrush to delicately clear dirt from a fragile find. (archaeological investigations at the old Champoeg townsite, Champoeg State Park, Oregon (USA), 1975. https://www.flickr.com/photos/gbaku/1543938114 ) 2. Toothbrushes and water help an archaeologist to gently clean small fragments of pottery, bone, and other materials. (http://pixabay.com/en/archaeology-digging-searching-59167/ ) 3. A group of archaeologists uses sieves to screen the excavated dirt, looking for very small finds and fragments. These sometimes can be missed when you’re moving a lot of dirt with large tools. © 4. Larger, free-standing sifting frames like this one allow archaeologists to sort through a large amount of excavated dirt at a faster rate. (A member of the Southwest Archaeology Team pours excavated matrix (site dirt layers) into a sifting frame. Photo from the 2011 Annual Open House at Mesa Grande, hosted by the Arizona Museum of Natural History, the Mesa Grande Neighborhood Alliance, and the Southwest Archaeology Team. This event is the one day each year that the Mesa Grande site is open to the public. (19 March 2011) http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mesa_Grande_2011-03-19_3859_(cropped).JPG) [NEXT SLIDE] SLIDE 5 How do archaeologists know where to excavate? They don’t just start digging in the ground to find artifacts. Before they dig, most archaeologists will use a technique known as survey. You may have taken a survey before, answering a series of questions to find out what you think or know about something. For archaeologists, survey involves “asking the landscape” the questions. Pedestrian survey (Image 2) involves archaeologists walking around on the surface of the earth, looking for any evidence of archaeological material visible on the surface. They are looking for scattered bits of broken pottery, as well as parts of walls or other evidence of ancient structures. Over time, ancient sites and objects get buried (requiring excavation), but some objects and sites get “un-buried” as well – uncovered through wind and water erosion, and through human activity such as digging, plowing, and earth-moving. Archaeologists often find many small artifacts and fragments on the surface, and a number of them in certain areas can indicate a good place to begin an excavation. Technology offers archaeologists very effective ways to explore and document the landscape. Have you ever seen a contraption like this one (Image 1) before? Maybe around construction sites or along the roadways? It looks a little bit like a camera, but it is a very sophisticated tool called a total station, which records the features of the landscape in very precise detail. The information gathered by the total station can be used to generate a computerized, 3D map of an area to help archaeologists analyze natural features as well as any man-made features. Surveying the local residents of an area can sometimes also give archaeologists good leads to potential dig sites. Locals often know stories about who or what lived in the area long ago; even if they only consider the stories to be legends today, they just might reflect memories of older inhabitants. Archaeologists can survey any place that people have lived, or where they still live. Urban archaeology, in cities, towns, and villages, is more difficult because of the modern structures like buildings, roads, sewers, parking lots, and electric lines. Many archaeologists choose to work in rural areas out in the deserts, pastures, fields, and mountains, where no one lives now (except maybe farm animals) and no one has looked for archaeological evidence before. Images information: 1. Alex perches on a rocky hilltop in Jordan (Petra) with a total station, used to create a 3D digital map, a bit like the one pictured below. This map shows a site’s topographic context (the landscape around it) as well as any architectural (man-made) features. 2. Part of Brown University’s team conducts intensive pedestrian survey in the Jordan desert. They are walking across the landscape at spaced intervals, carefully looking for, collecting, counting, and recording all archaeological evidence visible on the surface of the earth. 3. Emanuela prepares to take survey notes in the desert wilderness of Petra, Jordan, surrounded by a herd of local goats. (The goats do not help in archaeological work, but instead will chew on and eat clothing, equipment, paper, and anything else.) [NEXT SLIDE] SLIDE 6 Archaeologists don’t only work on land! All of their work can be done underwater as well – the survey, and then eventually even excavation. Do any of these images give you an idea of what underwater archaeologists look for? Or what kinds of tools they use? Underwater archaeologists can go scuba diving, or send little robotic cameras down into the water to explore the sea floor. They especially look for the remains of shipwrecks or other archaeological artifacts that got preserved in the water on the sea floor. These can then be documented and mapped, and eventually excavated, just like on land (but it’s all obviously much more difficult underwater, especially in really deep water!).
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